


The World As Will

by NeverComingHome



Category: Chronicle (2012)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-24
Packaged: 2017-12-23 21:12:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where everyone lives. </p><p>Andrew has become a super villain that needs to be stopped, Matt has become the one who intends to stop him and Steve has become a politician who wants to stay out of it. </p><p>Established Steve/OMC & Steve/Andrew in chapter(s) to come. </p><p>Contains: violence in the form of fighting and murders of minor ocs</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Descent of Apex and His Predators

  
“Well I started thinking about telekinesis which is like the manipulation of matter and not different from what I’ve been doing. So if you found some willing volunteers,“ the camera panned to two unmoving bodies, “and knew where everything went all it’d take would be-”

The camera flipped backward towards one of the gurneys in the morgue, stopping inches from the floor as Andrew regained control. It shook once more then glided in a half circle, moving just behind his shoulder as Steve gasped, clutching his chest. He threw up something vile, but his hacks were drowned out by the sound of Andrew laughing and chanting “oh shit” beneath his breath.

“What did you do to me?”

“I uh I think I just brought you back from the dead.”

Which was when Steve noticed the blood coming from Andrew’s ears, lifting a finger at it before collapsing.

~*~  
He covered up the bodies before Steve could wake up and told him the short, slightly glossy, version about energy and waking up cells. There was an apology in the way he explained it all as in: ’if I wasn’t an idiot I would’ve realized’ and ‘it takes a lot of control I obviously needed’. He told him everything about his father and what lead up to them being in a closed grocery store going through Gatorades and sandwiches. 

After, Steve took Andrew’s wallet and emptied its contents at the register before balling up their garbage to throw away outside like he hadn't been dead for a week and littering was still what he intended to get rid of as promised to the Earth Club. 

~*~  
Matt thought it was another joke courtesy of his cousins’ rapidly darkening sense of humor and didn't open the door right away. He'd been feeling like crap since he woke up in the middle of the night with a nosebleed, his stuff thrown around the room like he had some sort of fit in his sleep.

“How can you not sense him though,” Andrew was saying, “when he’s not beside me I know he’s somewhere. Open up the door, Matt, he says he missed you.”

He got off his bed intending to punch Andrew square in the mouth. He could see himself doing it, hopefully managing to literally knock some sense into him. It was too soon for this, for anything but mourning a friend and a life that would forever be changing in ways he would take back if he could. 

He opened the door with one hand and threw a punch with the other. Steve reared back and the first words he said to Matt after coming back from the dead were

“Ah damn it seriously? What the hell, man, you douche canoe.”

It wasn't exactly Shakespeare, but he made it work.

~*~  
They went to the pet cemetery (which Andrew and Matt protested against vehemently, having childhood flashbacks that gave Steve an idea what movie to buy them come Christmas) and within an hour they were surrounded by yapping dogs and angry cats. 

Andrew started talking about how they could travel the world, make it their calling in life or maybe just fly around having adventurea. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. Matt hugged his legs to his chest, bumping Steve’s shoulder with his own.

“What about being class president? Or you know, living a normal life?”

“What about being happy?” He smiled, bumping him back then giving an exaggerated frown. “Or what are all the cool kids tortured souls?”

Before he could respond, the white terrier Andrew had been playing fetch with perked its ears and leapt from his arms, racing towards the fence. A wide eyed little girl holding an ice cream cone froze then squealed like an old car and started running towards it. The puppy licked at the ice cream running down her shirt while she kissed its head and beamed at a suddenly shy Andrew. He shuffled over to the fence trying to think of a lie, but she didn't care lifting the dog to his face so it gave him a slobbery kiss on the cheek before skipping off. 

“Andrew!” He twisted his head, still grinning, “What do you say we work on turning water into wine next?”

“Oh, about that…”

Steve practically teleported to Andrew’s side, kicking dirt on Matt’s jeans in his hurry. He wiped it off, thinking.

_So basically you’re telling me I should give up on life_

_Yes_

“Guys!” They nodded at him. “Let’s go to Tibet.”

Screw Schopenhauer. 

~*~  
Nobody seemed to care  when they said they weren’t always enemies or that they weren’t born Apex, Ego and Steve “The Bullet“ Montgomery.  When their not so secret identies were discovered the press obsessed over their relationship for a little while, but eventually lapsed back into playing up their rivalry. They wanted to hear about Apex killing his own father, Ego keeping a bunch of Predators dressed in fireman outfits from robbing a bank, and the story around a picture of an eighteen year old Steve helping to fix a bridge. They didn't care why Andrew was Apex or why there was a big difference between Steve losing his powers and getting into politics versus Steve getting into politics and losing his powers.

They didn't know that the three of them spent six months hiking in Tibet then flew to Spain because it was the only language besides English they could all speak. They camped outside small towns and practiced pick pocketing, grew beards then dared each other to shave without using their hands and whoever had the least amount of nicks got to choose the next place. They lost to Andrew who made quick work of it, but in the end they unanimously ended up on a boat going almost literally wherever the wind took them.

The Descent of Apex and His Predators told the reader that Apex filmed his crimes and sent the footage to the friends and relatives of the victims titled "Punishment" without mentioning that Steve always recieved a copy and the only reason Matt didn't was because he was usually there in person, sometimes with his nose still bleeding while he fought and pleaded with his cousin, the staple of a classic Ego vs Apex showdown.

Steve steps out of the shower and there's a black envelope with yellow writing on the front. Punishment: Dan Sparks.

 


	2. Punishment

Dan Sparks is a conservative nut who found video of Steve smoking pot which brought up issues Steve hadn't been forced to seriously argue since he first got into politics. Sparks brought up his friendship with Ego and association with Apex both of whom actively skirted the government and refused to be studied for the benefit of both their country and the human race, as well as the cicumstances regarding Steve's ressurection. Sparks also gave an interview in which he derided Steve's civil partnership with Marley Allen, a professor who had once dated vice president Gloria Layton's husband who claimed Marley had “seduced” him into the lifestyle.

Steve had broken ground maintaining a hitherto strictly Democratic/Republican office as an Independent and his base was strong, large and rabidly supportive so the campaign was justifiably desperate and brutal. The point being to gain enough attention to figure out where Spark's had a better chance moving up the ladder. Various news programs set up a poll requesting viewers to submit their opinion on whether they supported Steve Montgomery regardless and when a significant number of “no”’s came from the same area, Sparks knew where to move after his inevitable loss. The downside of the publicity for Steve was that he won by the smallest majority vote possible and was forced to issue a statement on his past transgressions, reminding everyone of all the good he’d accomplished in the relatively short time he’d been in office as well as the undocumented efforts during his stint as The Bullet.

Andrew was working on a plan to free one of his more trustworthy accomplices from prison when he caught the blurb about Steve and clicked the link to the ad, the end of which showed the smug grin of the man responsible for it.

"I'm Danel Sparks and I approve this message."

  
~*~  
Matt jetted into the air, still wiping blood from his nose.

“Put the limousine down Andrew.”

“Ego! Glad you could make it for this one.”

“Come on this isn’t funny.”

“It’s not supposed to be funny,” he said while turning the vehicle sideways so the driver was pressed against the window while Dan furiously shook his out of service phone, “it’s supposed to be terrifying.”

“What did he do? What could he have possibly done to deserve this?”

Andrew twitched his head and the driver’s side door tore off and flung into the sky along with the driver who screamed as he began to plummet. The camera turned down to follow his descent

“Go get him," Andrew laughed, "I’ll wait.”

With a growl Matt dropped out of the sky after the free falling man, hugging him tight to his chest until they reached a helipad atop some corporate building. He fried the keypad of the door and instructed him to find the nearest phone or officer. Before he could be obeyed there was a deafening crash and he jogged to the edge of the building to find the limo crushed in an almost perfect flaming sphere in the middle of a nearby park. He focused and there was the distant hum of ambulances and the sight of people running bravely towards or hysterically away from the crash.

Sparks was either dead in the wreckage or alive with Andrew, wishing he was dead and Matt debated for a second, unable to tune into his cousin’s thoughts. If Sparks was dead Andrew’s idiotic minions were probably down there taking advantage of the chaos to fill their pockets and they were less ethical when it came to dealing out “Punishment”, but if Sparks was alive Andrew was probably tearing off his appendages slowly piece by piece.

Damn it.

He jumped off the building and towards the park.

~*~  
Steve covers his eyes while the video plays, listens to Matt shout at Andrew, the crunch of the car and strike of the match and then the rush of wind drowning out Dan’s pleas.

“What was it you, hold on.” He took off the fireman’s mask so Dan could hear him better. “Untrustworthy charlatan, that's what you called him, right? Have you met Steve Montgomery? He’s practically the most trustworthy person I’ve ever met. ”

“Let me go, let me go you bastard I didn’t do anything! You hear me? I didn’t do anything!” Steve reaches for the remote. “LET ME GO.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Steve catches a flash of something red being torn out of Dan’s chest before the screen goes black.

"Daddy?"

Marly took one look at the black envelope beside Steve and quickly lifted their daughter onto his shoulders, locking the door before closing it behind him.

~*~

“ It’s the only way.”

Steve sat down on the porch swing, staring at Matt's feet. “Then you do it.”

“He doesn’t trust me anymore and with the connection stronger than ever he’ll know what I’m up to the moment we get too close. Look before it was different: murderers and terrorists are one thing, but Dan Sparks was innocent. If you don’t help me I’m turning myself in.”

“Bullshit.”

“Bullshit bullshit." He kicks the swing, forcing Steve to look up, "You were the one who got to walk away from this.”

“You call this walking away? I had to explain to my husband why I had to watch a man die today."

“I had to watch a man die today too Steve! I have to watch people die everyday and I don't have a daughter or a wife who can make it all better for me. I spend my days hiding from the feds and trying to stop my maniac cousin from killing everyone he thinks is a jerk!" A dog begins to yap across the street and Matt punches his palm, claming himself down. “I didn’t want to have to tell you this, but someone in Layton’s camp bought off Marly’s boyfriend from college, they’re going to have him telling all the trash papers he was raped to support Layton’s claim that her husband is the straightest straight in straight town who was taken advantage of. We both know it’s not true, but who do you think Andrew will believe when he finds out?"

“Matt…”

“If you still have trouble deciding then remember Christmas, Bullet, remember what I did for you."

He pulls the mask back over his face and punches the ground, shaking the earth and leaving a ringing in Steve’s ears that persists long after Matt has disappeared from the night sky. He turns around to find Marly in the doorway, blinking sleep from his eyes and mumbling something about tremors and bad dreams. Steve follows him back to their bedroom, but later in bed he stares at the ceiling and does what Matt told him.

He remembers.


	3. Building Bridges

  
The first time they kissed it was practically Matt’s fault. He’d recently figured out how to intensify his hearing by creating some sort of air cocoon and wasn’t the best at explaining things in terms that anyone without a bachelor’s degree could understand. They’d anchored the boat somewhere then left to scope out the nearest town to figure out how they’d be celebrating Steve’s eighteenth birthday. .His parents had managed to file a successful lawsuit regarding the fact that their clearly alive son had a death certificate and thanks to him having skipped a grade his seventeenth birthday/graduation party had been an expensive ,but obscenely boring and safe dinner. Andrew especially was determined to give him a birthday worth remembering and set off with Matt determined to find the perfect town to hold the bash.

Matt had a photographic memory and was the de facto navigator while Andrew was the muscle due to being the strongest when it came to using their powers, a fact that Steve continued to find extremely amusing. Matt was constantly doing pushing up and going for runs, but at the end of the day it was Andrew who telepathically pushed the boat when they ran out of fuel or dealt with six foot human boulders who felt their wallets rising from their back pockets.

Steve knew what they were up to, leaving him behind, but it was true that the boat was in his name and he dealt with the authorities well as the result of being the latest in a line of cops, lawyers and various other paper pushing fields of expertise. In short he was the only one who could say, “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, I‘m American” in five different languages.

He didn’t mind it that much, Andrew and Matt bickered a lot especially when it came to making decisions. As he lifted fish out of the water before tossing them back in in search of a big one the two were proving him right. Matt had uncovered what he thought was the perfect festival, smart girls with cute Italian accents and great taste in music were crawling all over the place. Meanwhile Andrew had found what he thought was the perfect night club: loud music, cheap alcohol, lax security and a bevy of thoughtless, attractive people of both sexes. There was a question on his mind he’d been dying for an answer to but Matt had sworn off drinking until he turned twenty one or matched Andrew power wise and Steve tended to mimic his best friend’s habits.

The timing was horrible and Andrew just didn’t have the guts to ask Steve outright about the hugs and possible flirtations that seemed to be increasing the more time they spent together; there was also no way in hell he planned on talking to Matt about it either.

“We can’t do both. We’re taking him to the festival.”

“Don’t be a dick, Matt, let’s let him decide.”

“That defeats the purpose of a surprise party.”

“He’ll like the club better.”

“Oh yeah? And since when did you become the authority on all things Steve?”

“I don’t know maybe since I brought him back from the dead.”

“Yeah only after you killed him first.”

Andrew stopped in his tracks and Matt got a few steps ahead before he stopped too and turned around , throwing up his hands.

“I’m sorry. Andrew?” He was already in the air though, ignoring Matt’s shouts. He flew back to the boat only to find it deserted. There were no signs of struggle and he hadn’t been too distracted to know if Steve was in trouble, but none of that kept him from being any less gone. He collided with Matt on his way back to explain and they split up, Matt to the towns since he could find his way around easier and Andrew into the country so there was less interference when he tried to pin point Steve’s general location.

He’d learned a lot from the monks about meditation. He found an empty spot of grass to situate himself on and closed his eyes, willing his body into the conditions it was under whenever Matt or Steve were in trouble. His pulse began to race and he let the light headedness wash over him, the ringing in his ears increasing in volume.

At last a thought came to him, a single word that sent Andrew leaping into the sky without bothering to look around first.

_Help._

~*~  
In a somewhat anticlimactic turn of events Steve had asked a boat of swearing Italians why they were swearing and been told that abandoned construction of a bridge meant having to take the long way around and being Steve Montgomery, man of the people he’d given the metaphorical middle finger to Matt’s rules on exposing their powers and helped the strangers out. The thought had been a brief one when one of the men told a joke that had made him laugh so hard he almost dropped a piece of the bridge into the water. Andrew showed up to find old women crossing themselves while Steve posed for pictures and learned bits of Italian while telling his story.

When he saw Andrew walking up he carried him into the air and dropped him, the crowd of people applauding when Andrew stopped himself just above the water.

“Hey I know you guys were planning something, but there is no way we can leave.” He put an arm around Andrew’s shoulders, waving at the still applauding people beneath them.

“I should find Matt and let him know we’re here.”

Steve waved off the idea, “Nah, he’ll just call the whole thing off. The sooner we finish this bridge the sooner they’ll be able to reward us. With booze and food.“ His jaw dropped as he spotted the trunk of a car opening to reveal stacks of kegs, “And booze.”

“Matt will be super pissed,” Andrew shrugged, “but it is your birthday.”

“My man!”

Matt ended up finding them, thanks to his new long range hearing, but by the time he did the town had made it impossible for him to be angry. Eventually he wound up levitating with a girl in his lap who either didn’t understand a word he was saying or didn’t speak English, it was hard for Andrew to tell because the expressions were practically the same. Finally she seemed to make up her mind about something and covered the rambling American’s mouth with one hand and kissed his neck until he got the point.

“Woo!” Steve bumped into Andrew, lifting the wine bottle in Matt’s direction, “Look at yo’ boy! Hey why aren’t you taking advantage of,” he whistled at a group of girls walking past arm in arm, “all of that. You’re not still…you know.”

Andrew walked away from Steve towards the bar, leaving him frowning. He ordered a drink, looking away from the smiles that were thrown in his way to nip any illusions of conversation in the bud. He nearly flinched when Steve leaned against the counter next to him.

“I thought you didn’t drink.”

“I thought so too.”

“Hey it’s whatever if you’re still a virgin, ‘Drew, no pressure. Plenty of fish in the sea, no need to uh string your rod just yet, when the time comes-”

“Do you like guys?” Andrew wished he could swallow his tongue but the words kept coming. “I mean sometimes it seems like you do and sometimes it doesn’t and I don’t know. Forget it.”

“Wait a second.” He grabbed Andrew’s jacket and shoves him back into his seat. “I don’t like guys.” Andrew’s face went red and he struggled to get up again. “I like you. That’s kind of why I was hoping Matt wouldn’t be able to find us tonight, it’s not easy putting the moves on your best friend’s cousin when he can read your mind.”

“Actually it‘s more like reading emotions, not thoughts.”

“Can I finish? I‘ve been thinking about asking you out in the shower for weeks, alright, don’t turn into Matt on me. ”

Andrew was already smiling though, “You were thinking of asking me out while I was in the shower?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“No no keep going, I like where this is headed.”

“You do?”

Andrew felt his heart speed up. “Yeah.”

Matt wasn’t the only one who’d been working out. Andrew half carried, half levitated Steve to the nearest bed and they kissed like they were on a schedule which carried a little truth. There was no telling how far Matt would get with the local girl and whenever they used their powers police had a way of turning up no matter the circumstances. They flew into an empty room at a motel and made sure to lock the door before shirts came off, their emotions magnifying as they tuned in to what the other was feeling and gave themselves over to it. Steve’s pants were unbuttoned and Andrew was panting into his ear while his hand worked beneath his waistband when the door burst open and Matt’s words instantly became swears.

Apparently there were laws against civilians seizing government property especially when the civilians were foreigners who were reported to have descended from the heavens and performed miracles. When they made it safely back to the boat and were on the fast track to anywhere not shaped like a boot Matt dragged a cot onto the deck and informed them that whatever they were doing they needed to work out of their system because while he supported whatever it was happening between them he was sleeping on the deck forever or they were getting a multi-roomed boat because he refused to listen to his best friend sticking it to his cousin.

Andrew looked at Steve, “We didn’t actually get to the who was sticking it to who part.”

“Whom,” Matt corrected, “and TMI for the record.”

Steve reached over to push his chest with a laugh. “You are the coolest guy ever, Matt Garety, seriously.”

“Yeah well happy birthday.”


	4. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will flick back to the present

  
It seemed like that first year Steve and Andrew were dating would go on forever and none of them would’ve complained. They ditched the boat and worked long enough to buy a car. When it broke down they were picked up by a van of ex hipsters on their way to Burning Man, to pass the time Andrew showed them the videos he’d never stopped making and they convinced him to put it up on the big screen, someone gave him a card and he started getting paid to get the shots none of the people on their staff had ever managed. Matt became obsessed with the idea of becoming a bounty hunter when they intercepted a guy on the run and were given a hundred for their trouble. Steve spent the majority of his off time in parks or public markets talking to people when he didn’t have his nose in a book or newspaper.

With money coming in from Andrew and Matt’s ventures they stopped sleeping in the van and started renting rooms since Andrew and Steve’s tendency to have sex while levitating ended with Andrew falling half naked from the sky while Steve apologized, but reminded him how horrible he was at power multitasking. For a month afterward Matt would look at Andrew then start laughing which usually resulted in an argument or fight.   
  
It seemed like it would go on forever until it abruptly didn’t.

A new wildlife reservation was debuting in California so they’d rented a cabin nearby so Andrew could photograph before it opened then go on the first scheduled tour. While they were gone their cabin had been robbed and both Matt and Andrew were intent on finding out who did it.

“We can’t use our powers on whoever it is then take them to the police,” Steve pointed out. “Let’s just let it go.”

“They took the watch you gave me,” Andrew replied stonily, “I want it back.”

“It’s not worth it. Matt, will you talk some sense into him?”

“All the letters from my mom were in that bag he stole.”

“Come on. What happened to all that talk about rules?”

“Look why don’t you head to the university? That senator you’ve been talking about for the past week is talking. It was going to be a surprise, but Matt and I have to do this.”

“Please don’t go,” he placed a hand on the side of Andrew’s neck, “just because Matt wants to be Batman doesn’t mean you have to be Robin.”

Andrew kissed him with a smile, “I’m totally Batman and if it looks too dangerous we’ll grab the stuff and get out of there assuming we even find it today. Go to the university.”

And Steve, stupidly, did.

~*~  
Erica Puig answered every question Steve asked and when the speech was over she asked him to have dinner with her. Andrew and Matt weren’t receptive to his thoughts and they’d never thought to buy phones when they could communicate without words so he went. They talked for hours and when she dropped him back off at the cabin he was replaying the last part of their conversation. The part about him going to school and interning at her office.

“I look at you and I see so much potential that you’re not putting to use and I feel like you’re being irresponsible. You are cheating the world out of having someone like you fighting for their causes and that is the only criticism I can think to give and I am very critical.”

When he walked inside there was a dead body on the floor and Matt was yelling at Andrew.

“What happened?”

“Do you know how Andrew brought you back? Do you know where he got those hearts from?”

“Dead bodies.”

“Only after he killed them, he forgot to tell us that part. You can’t bring a dead person back to life with a dead heart.”

“Those guys were assholes! It doesn’t change what’s happening.”

“Yes it does! I only shot him because you said you could bring him back!”

“I can, Matt, why aren’t you listening to me? I can bring him back.”

“I’m not killing one criminal to bring back another.”

  
“The cops are on their way so if you don’t I will.”

Steve rubbed his chest as the pair continued on. That’s why Andrew had sent them to get pet food while he brought the animals to life that day in the cemetery. Why he’d never bragged about how he could resurrect people like he did when he discovered any other new power.

Andrew and Matt were physically fighting and then something happened. Andrew told Matt that he didn’t want their stupid powers anyway, Matt said he’d take them if he could and then there was static, a piercing squeal in their ears. Steve and Matt fell backwards, but Andrew remained standing-no longer one of them. Steve and Matt didn’t know how they knew, they just did. Andrew rushed forward again as Matt began to twitch.

“Give it back, give it back!”

“Take it! God it’s splitting my head apart.”

Another squeal and then all three of them collapsed. Andrew twitched his fingers to make a vase crash against the wall before finally relaxing with a shaky breath. The episode broke the hysteria they’d all been under and they began to move. Andrew mashed together the dead thief telepathically and locked him in a trunk then flew off with it while Matt took chemicals and scoured the floors. In the middle of doing it he looked at Steve.

“Get out of here.”

“What?”

“Before he comes back. Me and him…he’s my responsibility, I’m going to handle this.”  
  
“You can’t do it alone.”

“When I sort out Andrew you’ll know, until then one of us should have a chance. It deserves to be you, man.”

Steve admitted it would be cowardly and unfair to disappear on the person he was pretty sure he was in love with, but all he could think of was that a murdered person’s heart was beating in his chest and Andrew might’ve gone forever not telling him.

He left.

~*~  
Six months later Andrew and Matt were caught on camera fighting with pieces of roller coaster above the Statue of Liberty, bloodied, yelling and stronger than when they were teenagers. They were fighting because Andrew had been stalking Steve because he knew Matt had turned him against him and thought that all he needed was to prove that some people needed to be exposed and punished. The hearts he’d taken to resurrect Steve had been from guys everyone knew had been murderers but had gotten off on a technicality and there were too many guilty of the same.

Most people were aware of them as “gifted” do-gooders and they hadn’t been pursued too harshly, but Andrew was changing the way they were being seen. People no longer had to wonder how they could abuse their powers because he was showing them and bragging as he did it. Steve was in the office when the footage came on, tissues pressed to his nose as he watched. He went for the door, but was blocked by a crowd of people.

“Which one of those freaks are you leaving to help?”

“We're friends, I can talk them down.”

“How would they even know you‘re there?”

Erica stepped forward to explain, “We’ve never seen you use any powers. I assumed they were helping you, making you float or whatever it is they do. _Are_ you one of them?”

Steve hesitated, the ringing in his ears getting louder. On the screen Matt was attempting to use light poles to block the entryway into the jailhouse.

“No, ma’am, I’m nothing like them."

~*~  
The day before Christmas he came back to his apartment expecting to find his roommate and instead finding Andrew seated on the couch in a fireman’s uniform. He told Steve  he’d found some people who believed in his cause and wanted to help.

“I’ll be a Superhero.”

“Superheros help people, ‘Drew.”

“I know that.”

“You're kind of help isn't the type people are going to trust.”

“Hey, you’re a politician, it’s not always roses.” When Steve didn’t laugh he stood up. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how I brought you back, but I did it because I couldn’t live with myself.” He  curled his finger and Steve was pulled towards him. “I love you.”

Before Steve meant to he began shouting, angry at Andrew for the first time in maybe ever. He was angry because Andrew knew what he did was wrong and if he kept doing it he’d be selfish as well. When Andrew tried to kiss him Steve pushed his energy out and Andrew crashed into the door so hard it came entirely off its hinges. It was the first time he’d ever hurt him. He could feel anger and lust directed at him and it made him want to do it again. Andrew wiped blood off his face and tore through the top of the building out of sight.

The next day while snow was falling and people were opening presents Steve found Matt and told him he didn’t want to be the good guy anymore.

“Take them.”

“Are you sure?”

“I can feel him out there, hating me and it’s too much. I can’t deal with it, please Matt.”

Matt nodded then held out his arms. Steve focused on rejecting his powers and Matt didn’t have to pretend to want them. He planned on taking Andrew down and if Steve wouldn’t help he’d put the extra strength to good use.

His powers weren’t equal to Andrew’s, but Matt still curled up into a tight ball when the transfer was done. When he passed out Steve made a meal with the sparse ingredients he could find, checked his pulse and locked the door behind him.

On his way home he didn’t feel like he’d given up anything at all.


	5. Starting Over

Andrew couldn’t stop thinking about Dan Sparks. A politician was different in the same way a murderer was different than a theif, a politician from an officer who abused their power or a crooked cop different than a good one who stood in the way of good things actually happening. He stood across the street from a hospital and framed an ambulance with his hands, pressing them together until the vehicle crunched and squealed like scrap metal.

When the EMTs emerged from the building they nearly dropped their clipboards at the sight, immediately looking around until they saw him. Andrew waved then stepped into the car that pulled up and sped away before they could read the plate numbers.

The information about Steve’s husband wasn’t anything concrete, but he knew Matt would think he wouldn’t bother finding the truth. His affection for Steve had soured over the years, but his hatred for Matt had remained consistent. Andrew still remembered Christmas day when the only thing keeping him sane was knowing Steve was out there, worrying about him constantly. He’d gone to Steve’s intending to tell him he was planning on never killing again. Cadets had approached him earlier about joining forces to get the police to work with him instead of against. He’d never gotten the chance to tell him the specifics, but he knew that if they’d remained connected Steve would’ve felt the lack of anger in him. He'd found new followers when on Christmas he felt Matt's pain of gaining new powers and stopped being able to connect with Steve.

Andrew remembered when he was walking down the street, trying to figure out where in Canada he’d landed and a metal pole came shooting at him. Not thinking of his powers he’d ran to the nearest entryway before looking up. Matt was there in all his denim jean and red beanie glory with his arm just coming out of the football like pose he’d adopted while throwing the newly sharpened spike.

“You almost killed me!” Andrew shouted as if it were the first time it’d happened or the first time he’d realized what it meant. Matt wasn’t trying to scare him straight anymore or appeal to the good in him. Without replying Matt flew back down, yanked another light pole out of the cement and began to turn his hand to twist the end of it.

So while he did want Steve again he knew that the other man was in love with Marly and even if he wasn’t he’d never cut him out of their daughter’s life. Andrew decided that if Steve didn’t want to be with him at the very least he should torture him until Matt showed up and at least one of his goals were accomplished.

They flew to Tibet and Andrew wasn’t surprised to see him only because he’d been in the middle of explaining a heist when he felt the specific agony of gaining their power. Steve stripped off the heavy coat and waved his arms at Andrew before bulleting towards him, the jacket hanging from his fingertips.

“What are we doing here?”

“Do you mean what are we doing here or,” he looked around ,”here.”

His plan fell apart because apparently it was really easy to be a comic book villain and borderline sociopath until he got the reminder that he hadn’t been born one. He immobilized Steve to search his pockets and while he did Steve hadn’t started talking about Matt or the Predators. He started talking about what he’d been up to, like they’d both been on vacation after taking a break. Andrew found himself slipping into the conversation without meaning to. They were sitting in a cave with a fire going when Steve finally breathed hot air into his palms and asked.

“So why am I here?”

“The people I got your hearts from were in comas. I thought I was putting them out of their misery, I know I was stupid, but I missed you. This whole Apex thing keeps me safe, everyone is terrified of double crossing me ever since I learned how to keep a constant sheild around myself.”

“One barrier for another.”

“Why do we have to go back?” He threw a stick into the fire, watching Steve carefully over the flames. “We could always run away again.”

“Yeah we could do that, if I didn’t have a daughter or Matt hasn’t driven himself I honestly want to say literally insane trying to catch you. If you would’ve turned yourself in in the beginning I wouldn’t have anything to go back to. Us,” he gestured, “that’s what I’d have, but you didn’t so this is where we are.  The only way you can make it up to Matt and I and live is to give yourself up.”

Andrew shook his head, of all the people to be his downfall. The Apex Predator brought down by a lawyer. He told steve that if he turned himself in he’d be in prison with people who had committed crimes he would’ve killed them for.

“Honestly I prefer death row.”

Steve caught the stick Andrew tossed, “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.”

~*~  
The news reported that The Bullet and Ego joined forces to take on Apex and won claiming that when given no other option he chose to tear out his own heart rather than give up the identities of his predators. Government officials confirmed the heart belonged to Apex and under public pressure granted amnesty to the duo, excusing their previous crimes and being forced to grudgingly admit they could not be forced into medical testing. Steve told everyone he’d given the conjoined powers of him and Apex to an unnamed monk then returned to his life, but less than a week later was rumored to be seen walking into a bar where Predators had been known to congregate. Gunshots were fired and when police arrived the Predators were ranting about a trap and the absence of someone named “Monty”, but no other bodies or weapons were found and they suspected one of their team had simply run off after a fight erupted.

When Matt asked him about it Steve chalked it up to everyone attributing any good thing to them lately while hiding the envelope behind his back. Matt had decided that even in the absence of his cousin he'd continue to be Ego and It had taken several hours, but Steve had managed to convince him into going to a festival help in his honor that ensured he’d be unconscious when Steve went back to ressurect Andrew. When Steve gave up his powers they were in front of a car on a piece of bought and paid for land surrounded by a fence, not far from a town where people were aware of three government projects causing trouble for America, but couldn’t say what their names were if pressed. Steve kissed him while the transfer happened, holding onto his arms to stay upright and pushing him away when he recovered.

“I love you Detmer, don’t make me regret it.”

Andrew watched the car disappear down the path and clenched his fists, feeling the invisible layer of protection around his skin and, as he walked off in the opposite direction to start gathering firewood, he let it drop.


End file.
